Foundational Black Americans and African Descendants of Slavery are two groups that argue the gains in equality earned through the mid-20th-century Civil Rights Movement should be granted only to direct descendants of those who were enslaved in the United States. In contrast, more recent arrivals to America from Europe, Africa and the Caribbean argue their success is evidence of a post-racial society and the lack of a culture of poverty.
Both perspectives show how well these groups have learned and practiced American culture. The nativism of FBA and ADOS continues the idea of “America for Americans” that has been constant in anti-immigrant narratives for centuries, most recently in the “America First” ideology. Another constant in American culture is white supremacy, which ignores racial oppression and blames its victims. In this narrative, African immigrants’ success simultaneously proves racism does not exist and chastises Black Americans for their own systemic poverty.
While both of these narratives are harmful to these communities, the “wars” ignore centuries of these groups being within the same communities and everyday experiences of racism, ultimately hindering equality. Even when slavery was legal, Black communities had people directly descended from the Caribbean, Africa and Europe. Examples persist through the 19th and 20th centuries, from territories such as Ghana, Ethiopia, Cuba and France spending significant time living and working in Black communities, sewing themselves into the tapestry of the American quilt.
When we fight over who gets what, whether earlier generations have been a part of the same communities or if Black Americans deserve their oppression, we are distracting ourselves from the real enemy that hurts all of us. In other words, if we are arguing over whether Barack Obama’s success proves racism does not exist, that he isn’t a Black American because his father was Kenyan or that his success is due to his lack of Black American descent or culture, it completely misses the point. When he walks outside his door, he is one of many Black Americans who have recent descent outside of America, whose experiences with racism show us how far we need to go.
Brian J. Yates, Ph.D., is a professor of history and the director of the American Studies Program.
